The Wing Side Up Story

Birth of a Brand-

Wing Side Up Enterprises was born of a passion for supermodified racing and got it’s start from Bob Gangwer’s desire to contribute a weekly column about supermodified racing to Dick Beebe’s Award Winning MARC Time Racing News.

Gangwer would find the name he needed for his new column by remembering a conversation he had with a friend and long time neighbor while getting this persons autograph during the intermission of a supermodified race at South Bend Motor Speedway.

“To my good friend and neighbor Bob,
Willie Stutzman #88″

Upon saying thank you and good luck to Willie, he replied to Gangwer-”Thanks, we’ll try to ‘Keep It Wing Side Up and Wheels to the Ground’

That simple encounter between a boy and his childhood hero not only gave rise to a successful weekly column about supermodified racing, but also became a mindset and way of life for Gangwer who would use his passion for the DIVISION to land by-lines in Area Auto Racing News, Short Track Racing Magazine, The San Jose Mercury News, as well as his local newspapers.  Being a photographer in addition to writing gave Gangwer the creative outlook he longed for.

It’s All About the Show-

From an early age, Bobby G. as he would come to be called, longed to be a flagman or an announcer for supermodified racing.  Staging ‘big wheel’ races on the long driveway of his parents Goshen, IN home, he would take cues from his favorite flagman-Larry Hotram.  When the flagging chores became boring, Gangwer would then time the ‘drivers’ and announce the action doing his best to imitate the man that would become a mentor, advisor, and friend, Kalamazoo Speedway’s “Chubby Little Pronouncer”, Mick Schuler.  To this day, Gangwer strives to push the envelope of ‘ordinary’ and is always looking for interesting, unique, and exciting promotional ideas.

The Pull of “The Lady in Grey”

Even while devoting 10 years of his life to go BMX racing, Gangwer’s goal from those early years had always been to make it to the “Home of the Supermodifieds” Oswego Speedway.  After seeing an article about Jimmy Shampine in Stock Car Racing Magazine, Gangwer knew that he had to make the trek to the Mecca of supermodified racing.  Finally in 1985 after much pleading with his father, the two made their first trip ever to Upstate New York to witness the International Classic 200.

Eventually, he would convince his ‘good friend and neighbor’ “Wild” Willie Stutzman to also make the drive to Upstate New York where Stutzman would become a fan favorite just like he was back in IN.

Bob of all Trades

Along the way Bobby G. has helped promote a supermodified race @ M40 Speedway in Michigan, turned a lot of wrenches as a ’stooge’ on supermodifieds down through the years, written press releases for drivers, and has become “The Voice of  the Supermodifieds” with official announcing duties for nearly all of the supermodified sanctions including ISMA (International SuperModified Association), MSA (Midwest Supermodified Association), SMRA (Supermodified Racing Association).

He also is a board member of the United Supermodified Association at Oswego Speedway and co-founder of the Supermodified Ultimate Pavement Racing Series-aka SUPRS which is an online simulated supermodified racing league formed in 2004.  SUPRS is the sole administrating body of the Dion Parish Memorial Benevolent Fund.  Through cash donations, this fund is used to give back to the drivers, teams, tracks, and fans that support supermodified racing in times of need.

Digital Age

Gangwer launched “Wing Side Up on the World Wide Web” in May of 2001 as a way to bring his column and photography to a wider audience while also providing “News, Views, and Reviews” for all supermodified sanctions coast to coast.  He became a pioneer of promoting all of the various supermodified sanctions instead of focusing on one part of the country and worked to spread the word about the DIVISION by networking to all those embracing this newer technology, thereby truly becoming world wide in scope.

In 2008 Gangwer, with the help of his marketing manager, Annamarie Malfitana-Strawhand, revamped Wing Side Up on the World Wide Web and relaunched his internet radio show Wailing with Wing Side Up.  With a focus on bringing the drivers, teams, owners, and promoters of supermodified racing to a platform where their voices can be heard, Wailing with Wing Side Up has become the place where fans turn to hear exclusive interviews and news as well as history and results for supermodified racing.

Remembering the Past, Looking to the Future

From those beginnings along with a lot of help from his friends, Gangwer has continued to develop his passion for all things supermodified and has become known for his unwavering dedication to supermodified racing including the drivers, teams, promoters, sponsors and fans.

Speaking his mind, but always looking at all angles of the subject has gained Gangwer the friendship of most and the respect of all within the supermodified community.  Never one to rest on his laurels, he is always seeking new ways to bring the supermodified division to the forefront of auto racing coverage in a way that is beneficial not only to established fans, teams, sponsors and promoters,  but also gains new people who want to become a part of “The Ultimate Short Track Race Car.”

Favorite Things

Race Track-Winchester Speedway

Quotes to Live By-

• “If you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience”-Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker
• “Always do your best.  If that’s not good enough, then that’s just too bad for them.”-Sue Gangwer
• “Bobby, don’t ever make promises you can’t keep.  If you say you are going to do it, do it, because nobody will trust a bullshitter.”-Jimmy Shirey
• “A good racer is one whose head is in communication with his balls.”-Richie Evans
• “If the past cannot teach the present and the father cannot teach the son, then history need not have bothered to go on.”-Russell Hoban
• “Sometimes the poorest man leaves his children the richest inheritance.” Ruth E. Renkel
• “Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion; the potential for greatness lives within each of us.”-Author unknown-passed on to Bobby G. by his dad

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